Up top is an actual Browning Baby. Down below is an FN-Browning Vest Pocket. These are commonly confused for each other, they're both tiny .25's.
The Vest pocket is much older, dating from a 1905 John Browning patent. Colt made a near copy of this gun as the Model 1908 Vest Pocket. From what I read online, I guess that this example was made in 1922; if someone out there has firm dates by serial number for the Vest Pocket, lemme know. The mild unpleasantness of the 1940's played hell with the records, I hear.
The Baby is, in a lot of ways, a look at the Vest Pocket with an eye to make it smaller and easier to manufacture. Like the Hi-Power this is a joint venture of John Browning and Dieudonné Saive; production began in 1927 and continues to this very day. This one was made in 1968. It's got a magazine safety, with an extra irritation that I've never bumped into before; you cannot cock it without the magazine inserted.
Production overlapped with both guns being offered from 1927 through 1959.
All in all, I prefer the earlier design; but a Browning gun collection requires one, as does a .25 ACP collection.
Here's the Baby taken apart.
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